Smile.

Here it is.

Emerald meets the cousins. And Santa.

It's the season of baby's first Christmas!  But first things first.  Our aunt and uncle Beth and Gary and their three beautiful girls came to town and we got to visit with them while they held the baby.  Thank God for having five extra people to hold the baby!

Jaimie holds her newest cousin.

Also, the newest cousin decided to take a giant crap at this time.

Gotta love babies.  They're the only ones that look cute while they crap.

Kaitlin gets acquainted. Look at her, professional with a burp cloth!

I never have one when I need it, thus I do 10! (that's a factorial) loads of laundry a week.

Ally holds the baby cousin.  

Also, Ally has that same kind of Christmas sweater my mom used to make for me.

Love. It.

Em isn't sure about Gary at first-but really she just needed new pants and some lunch.

Jaimie and Ally read to Em, "Jamberry".

I love how interested Em looks!

The beginning of an attempt at a timer picture of all of us.

We even captured Relay, the Mans Clan's dog!

Also, somehow I look tall.  Don't I?

And then we went to a Christmas party with them and Em got to meet Santa for the first time! She was in the middle of a meltdown, but stopped crying for five seconds to take the picture.  A December 10th miracle, I think.

And our tree is up and decorated. Plus, present wrapping ninja obviously came to town.

Mans Family=WINNING.

Baby Gremlin is 5 weeks old!

Em is five weeks old today.  I can hardly believe it-I now know what people mean when they say time speeds up when you have kids, though, the days were passing too quickly before I was a mom.

Emerald has learned to smile "on purpose", like when I make a funny face or noise, or when I touch her on the nose and say "beep!"  Yeah, I'm a real cheesy person now because these things are the highlight of my day.

We still have our challenges, that's for sure, but I feel like I'm finding my way the more I get to know her.  

We are certainly looking forward to her first Christmas, though it was taken THREE DAYS to get the tree, get it in the stand, and put lights on.  Maybe we can ask for an extension on Christmas this year.  No such luck, I guess, since our families are coming in ONE WEEK for Rob's hooding and to celebrate Christmas early. At least we don't have to travel anywhere.  I'm thinking we are done traveling on Christmas forever-I want Emerald to celebrate Christmas at home, and I'm excited for us to start our own Christmas traditions. For example, I tried to put on "Charlie Brown Christmas" for Em yesterday.  She can't see or understand it, but she does follow lights on the screen, and likes music.  She decided she'd rather look at the ceiling.  Then she needed changing.  But Bella decided it was a perfect setup:

Other pics from today:

Unimpressed by most things.

Hey pretty lady!  I'm trying to capture her "on purpose" smiles on camera.  No luck there.

Believe me when I say it's insanely adorable.

So is her "gremlin" face, which I also haven't caught on camera.

Is she pretty or what?

Decidedly bored with "tummy time"

We are working on it.

As Promised

This post, in which my child is dressed as a bear, is dedicated to Abby.  Sorry it isn't a panda suit, but I bet it's close enough.

Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On

Today Em and I ran some errands. She was a perfect angel (i.e. she slept.) the whole time.  It really is all about timing I guess.

Since we were going on an outing, she wore jeans for the first time!

Feeling okay abou this get-up.

 Settling in for a nap after lunch...good time for a car ride!

I will sell you to the gypsies!

Of course I'm not actually going to sell Emerald to gypsies.  Because Birmingham doesn't have any.  

But we have had a challenging day.  There was yelling.  There was spitup all over 4 outfits and poop on one.  There was projectile spitup in my hair and all over my shirt.  There was more yelling.  

I wanted to start wrapping Christmas gifts today.  That was my mistake-I made an agenda!

Being a new mom is kind of like hazing. Babies are real good at hazing, turns out. 

I'm quite excited for her dad to get home from work so I can go to the gym.  Really, anywhere but here for an hour or so would work.

She is sleeping peacefully now (finally napping after several hours of yelling, puking, pooping and yelling...and also a bath), and I'm once again madly in love with her. She's so stinkin' cute.

People warned me this would happen...

I'm back, bitches.

Today I went back to the gym.  It was wonderful, even though I still have to take it easy until my 6 week post-partum appointment (2.5 weeks to go!). 

And I weighed myself out of morbid curiosity-I usually use my clothes as a weight gauge, but I couldn't help myself.  I've lost 21 of the 27 pounds I packed on during pregnancy!  I bet the last 6 will be the hardest so I'm not going to sweat them or weigh myself again. 

I'm just happy to be active again.